Loose fill fibrous insulation can be blown or pumped into attics, walls and other surfaces of houses and other buildings. The loose fill fibrous insulation can include inorganic material such as fiberglass and/or organic material such as cellulose fibers. A binder can be added to the fibrous insulation as it is emitted from a nozzle to bind the insulation particles together.
In conventional methods and systems, the fibrous insulation is blown into a cavity defined between two adjacent elongated supporting members such as studs or purlins by directing a flow of the fibrous insulation into the cavity. In such conventional methods and systems, it is necessary to adjust the insulation flow both in a direction perpendicular to the elongated supporting members as well as in a direction parallel to the elongated supporting members in order to adequately fill the cavity with the insulation material.
This conventional technique and system of filling the cavity presents several drawbacks. For example, when the insulation flow is directed back and forth in a direction perpendicular to the elongated supporting members, the flow typically impacts the supporting members, causing build-up of the insulation material on the supporting members and/or fly off of the insulation material from the supporting members. Such build-up can adversely affect the user's ability to determine the endpoint of the filling of the cavity, and as such, overfilling of the cavity can occur. In addition, the fly off of the insulation material can result in wasted materials, and in particular the use of excess binder. Further, the conventional techniques and systems that require both parallel and perpendicular directional adjustments of the insulation flow can be prone to a relatively high degree of user error and/or fatigue during the installation process, since it is necessary for the user to make frequent nozzle position adjustments.
In addition, conventional techniques and systems generally do not provide adequate means for controlling the density of the blown-in insulation. The installation of blown-in insulation having a density that is higher than what is required for a specific application can result in the use of excess insulation and binder material, which can in turn contribute to increased installation costs.
Furthermore, because specific parameters of the blowing process such as temperature, humidity, the particle size and consistency of the loose fill fibrous insulation, the blowing machine settings, etc. can vary from site to site, it can be difficult in conventional techniques and systems to attain a desirable flow pattern emitted from the blowing nozzle, and to obtain a desired density of the blown-in insulation product.